A teaser....

For those of you following the blogvella, the current offering is a "Psyche-vella".

Start here:  Bitter Herbs

Chapter 2: Heads Up

Chapter 3: Shrink This

Chapter 4: The Old Neighborhood

This week's chapter will be presented Friday by yours truly.  The title?  How about Dead End?

Posted by: caltechgirl at 06:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Irony of the day

Lifted wholesale from Insty:

AL GORE WON'T ENDORSE JOE LIEBERMAN. Comment: "I guess Lieberman would have been good enough to run the government if something bad happened to Gore. But he's not obviously the best qualified to be the junior senator from Connecticut, even though he had the same job when Gore tapped him in 2000."

Wow.  Either being POTUS has lower requirements than I thought, or Algore has just reinvented the internet...  Who needs Algore anyway?  I love Joe, and I'd vote for him in a heartbeat!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:33 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Cluck off, Chickie!

Last week, the Dixie Chicks ruffled a few feathers when singer Natalie Maines dismissed her ENTIRE fan base, saying,

"I'd rather have a smaller following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith," she told Time. "We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."

This week, she's back, and served up her other foot for another tasty meal:

"The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism," Maines resumes, through gritted teeth. "Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country… I don't see why people care about patriotism."--emphasis mine, ed.

No wonder the Clucks are having a hard time selling out arenas in places like Memphis, Indianapolis, and Fresno.  Yeah, their album debuted at #1, but anyone in the biz will tell you that album sales mean nothing to the artist.  They make all of their money touring.  Cancelling concerts is bad  news on the pocketbook.  Especially the new Louis Vuitton ones, right, Natalie?

All the snark aside, I'd like to remind Ms. Maines and her colleagues that the SINGLE, ONLY, UNIQUE, UNITARY, etc. reason that she has this soapbox, that she's made all the money in her bank account, that she can fly to France or the UK whenever she wants and spout off about this country is that she is a CITIZEN OF THE US.

Don't love your country, Natalie, it's ok.   Really, The rest of us could give a shit.  But don't tell us we're stupid for caring.  Don't tell us that you like your life and then spit in the face of those people who have died or sacrificed much so that you can live the way you do.

Why should people care about patriotism, Natalie?  Well, because patriotism created this country, it sacrificed to preserve out way of life, and continues to do so over and over again every day.  Patriotism is why you can stand on your soapbox and denounce the President.  Patriotism is why you speak English, not German or Japanese.  Patriotism provides you with the security to go about your business and raise your children as you see fit.

The truth is, see, that in the long run, it is the patriot whose contributions will matter.  The small effort of each individual to preserve and prolong the grand experiment in democracy started more than 200 years ago by another group of patriots whose motives were questioned by ignorant fools like you.  Your contributions, your songs, your rabble rousing, your chicken feet tatoos; they'll all be gone with the proverbial wind.  But this country, and the patriots who protect her, will still be here.

What was the most popular song/singer of 1776?  You don't know?  Well, in 2206 I can assure you the same answer will be spoken in response to "Who were the Dixie Chicks?"

Posted by: caltechgirl at 10:05 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Experience Bij!*

Way too many links to Klingon Language Sites from Harvey.

* Bij is the Klingon word for pain

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Weird

So yesterday was a BP day for me.  As in HIGH BP.

-- Talking about this bullsh*t

--F*cking Dodger game next Friday is sold out in 2 days

--F*cking Hurricanes lose in OT

--Goddamn pissy bastard at Wal-Mart trying to tell me that the garden center is closed 45 seconds after the storewide announcement: "The Garden Center will be closing in 5 minutes."(presumably at 9pm)   THEN he shows me his watch and says, "See??  It's 9:01".  My response: "That's not my problem.  Get the person who makes the PA announcements to set her clock forward".  His manager told him to ring me up and the 3 ladies behind me who also wanted to leave from the garden center.  His response?  "But I never got my break".  Whiny asshole.

--I had this dream last night where something happened, and DH knew what it was, but I was prevented from seeing it by him (not a bad thing, though), and no one would tell me what was going on.  I kept asking, and no one would answer me.  The last thing I remember is punching Ben in the face repeatedly for smirking, talking to other people, and not answering me.  I also remember considering jumping up on the coffee table and firing a gun into the ceiling to get people's attention.  Then I woke up with fists clenched and really pissed off.  Ask my DH.  He thought I was gonna punch him.

Moral of the story?  Don't F*ck with Wendy Testaburger.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 09:54 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Now hear this!

Most of you probably have seen this story about the ring tone that supposedly only teens can hear.

It's an ultra-high frequency tone, around 17-18 kHz, and most adults lose the ability to distinguish such tones as we age and the hair cells in our inner ears are damaged, either from getting older, or excess exposure to loud noises, including music.  Teens, however, should be able to hear it just fine...

As can most dogs and cats....

Anyway, Steve-O has the link here.  Turn up the volume and click the player.  I can hear it just fine, thanks, as annoying as it is.

Trust me, any of the little f*ckers show up in my class with that, I will own their cell phone for the rest of the day.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 02:46 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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But, I was listening to him this morning!

Big Ben Roethlisberger, Super Bowl winning QB with the Pittsburgh Steelers (and 24 year old hot head) was in a serious motorcycle crash this morning.

Dumbass was not wearing a helmet, which is LEGAL in Pennsylvania.

Late reports say he has serious head injuries, including a concussion, facial lacerations, missing teeth and a broken nose, cheek, and jaw.  He may also have knee injuries.  Kellen Winslow, Jr. Jr., anyone?

Evidently he flew over the handlebars of his fancy little crotch-rocket into the front of an oncoming Chrysler New Yorker.

The accident happened not long after Roethlisberger gave an interview to Tony Bruno and Mark Willard on their syndicated sports talk show, which I was listening to this morning.  It was kind of a shock to hear the same voice who joked with Ben at 6am announce his accident 2 hours later.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:38 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Makes you wonder if they read their own blog

The ABC News' blog The Blotter has a very interesting piece on the man who turned in Zarqawi... And they're getting slammed by the readers for it. 280 comments and counting.

This is EXACTLY why your ratings are going down, you opportunistic slugs.

h/t LGF

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:37 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Potential good news....BREAKING

According to ABC news, who is the ONLY one on the story right now....

Zarqawi is TOAST.

Special Report interrupted Nightline, not even on the web page yet

Update: Acc. to Technorati, I am indeed the first to report this. I even beat Kos by 10 minutes! Holy Crap!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:46 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Update to Miss Idiot (below)

3 days detention and a bunch of zeros. 

Her excuse?  "There was too much stuff to do and not that much time to do it in." 

Well, yeah, if you don't do it when it's due and then wait until right before the end of the school year....

At least she was embarassed and apologized.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:53 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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It's Beastly!

The date being 6/6/6, which is of course the "biblical number of the Beast", The Pirate brings you some lesser known numbers relating to "The Beast"... well, you'll see.

Drink warning for some of them....

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:31 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Stupidest Cheater EVER

As many of you know, my sweet husband is a high school teacher.  He is currently teaching 4 classes of Earth Science to 9-12 graders at his school.

One of his grading policies is that students MAY turn in late work for partial credit before the end of the quarter, and he is more than happy to give any student a progress report showing their score on each assignment and including a list of what is missing at any time.

Recently, one student, hereafter known as Ms. I (for Idiot) was told of several assignments she was missing, and she assured my husband that they had been turned in, and she would bring the graded assignments in this week as proof that he had somehow not recorded them.

So today she turns in 7 or 8 assignments, all with the same interesting characteristic.  The top right corner of each assignment was torn off.  As you may recall from your own school days or from your kids' homework, that's usually the place where you write your name, date, and class number.  Except for one, and on that one the name written in the name blank is scratched out and her name is written below.

Her name was written wherever she could fit it in.

Also, each assignment is in a different pen/pencil, although all of the places where she has written her name are in the SAME black pen.  However, more interestingly, each assignment was in a DIFFERENT HANDWRITING. 

I really don't know how she expected to get away with it.  I mean HONESTLY.  Idiot.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 04:53 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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You can't win for losing...

The recent increase in Atlantic hurricane activity may be tied, not to global warming, but to the ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP we've been working so diligently on over the last few decades.

"Cleaner air and more Atlantic hurricanes may come as a pair, according to a new study comparing rising global sea surface temperatures with sun-blocking pollution particles.

It turns out that the recent decline of small manmade pollution particles called aerosols in the North Atlantic might be allowing hurricane activity to catch up with the effects of global warming there, reported climate researchers Michael Mann and Kerry Emanuel in a new study in the journal Eos."

Take that Enviro-Nazis. You're actually making things worse!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:34 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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The times we live in....

Possible chemical weapons raid by British police

Ricin and Pipe Bombs found in suburban Tennessee home

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Those crazy Bad Example kids

They've gone and spawned again!

Courtesy of Adopted Blog-Mom Bou, we have a new blog-sis, Mrs. Who of House of Zathras.

And true to the formula that the Bad Example family tree is often more of a stick than a tree, adopted blog-sis VW contributes a new blog sis/niece, her real life sister Tink of Tink's Tribulations.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 01:38 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Nahuatl is the language of nature...

So says this piece of what George Moneo has so rightly termed "Bovine Excrement".  It's worth the 2 minutes out of your life to laugh and shake your head at the self-important idiocy that passes for education around here.  Keep in mind that this POS had to get a charter from the county, so somebody actually bought into this.....

Quick!  The Smug cloud is descending over Los Angeles!  Oh no!

On a related note, Cobb has some interesting thoughts on immigration and the Latino community....

Posted by: caltechgirl at 01:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Because I feel like being silly...

The other 5s meme:
5 things in my fridge:
-Trader Joe's Milk.  It keeps up to 2 months past its expiration date.  No, we don't drink a lot of milk, why do you ask?
-Costco tamales.  Mexican food is ALWAYS on the menu here.  Tamales are my favorite.
-Kraft Italian 4 cheese lo-fat shredded cheese blend.  It's not that much more expensive, and I don't have to shred it.  And what's better than Asiago, Parmesan, Romano, and Mozzarella mixed together?
-Leftovers.  When you cook for two or you eat smart when you eat out, there's always a container of something or other in the fridge.
-cold French Fries.  Also known as "FF's" in our house since someone knows what "French Fries" means.  Yes, they are for her.

5 items in my closet:
-My academic regalia.  It came yesterday and I am sooooo excited.  I get to dress up like a real professor for the first time on Saturday at graduation!
-My computer bag.  It was a graduation present and it has wheels and a handle so I don't have to carry it.  A very thoughtful gift.
-Favors from my friend's wedding last summer.  They came out of my purse and got put on the shelf, and there they have been sitting.
-My friend A's birthday and Christmas presents.  Her birthday was in January.  I am SUCH a good friend.
-My bathroom.  You have to walk through the closet to get to the master bath.

5 items in my car:
-my cell phone charger. The damn thing dies at the drop of a hat anymore, so I keep it "hooked up" in the car.
-water bottles.  We drove to Fresno last weekend and I haven't cleaned out all of the debris
-dog leash.  You'd be surprised how often I realized we had left the house without the leash until I started leaving one in the car...
-Mini hockey player.  There's a Carolina Hurricanes mini doll keychain hanging from my rearview mirror.
-Shoes.  There's at least one pair of my shoes in the back.  I like to keep comfy shoes around in case my feet reject the heels.  I think my Dansko clogs are in there...

5 items in my purse:
-my iPod.  The headphones live there too.  Gotta have it at work.
-my digital camera.  You never know when you're gonna want it.
-my card case.  DH gave me a lovely gold filigree card case to carry my business cards in for Christmas, and you'd be surprised how often I hand them out.
-lip gloss.  Tutti Dolci by Bath and Body Works, Apple Tart or Cinnamon Frosting
-My pain pills.  S'posed to take them with food and  I eat in the office.

5 people to tag:
Randomly choosing....
Oddybobo
Rachel
Richmond
Rave
Amy

from Marie

Posted by: caltechgirl at 04:27 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Anyone else notice?

Thousands of Americans send get-well cards to a horse but ignore our fighting men and women who are wounded in their service?

Grr... Maybe if our soldiers were wounded on TV....

Posted by: caltechgirl at 05:56 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Data Stolen from more than 25 MILLION US Veterans

Everyone discharged since 1975 (including my husband) has had their personal data compromised because some IDIOT took it home on a laptop without authorization.

Full story here.  Mike Hampton has more, including a letter that will be sent to affected veterans(h/t Jawa Howie)

Posted by: caltechgirl at 02:13 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Heil Ahmedinejad!

Sick. Just fucking sick.

h/t Jawa Howie

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